Photo & Video Galleries

“Pulling The Rug Out From Under Our Feet”: The Royal Laundry, Madrid

Part 2 Project 2011Andrew CumineUniversity of Westminster London UKNegotiating Madrid’s complex topography, its natural terrain seems a forgotten membrane draped on a solid geography and covered by artificial constructions. The rugged western escarpment, essential to Madrid’s self-image, inspired the position of the Royal Palace and is contradicted by its flat terraces.

Three topographical ‘samples’ of the escarpment are conceived as surfaces requiring new support structures. These memories of Madrid’s historic edge are conceptually displaced to the giant flatness of a hippodrome at the city’s contemporary edge, and transformed as architectural constructions and positioning devices for new developments.

The first development to occur around the displaced topographies is a royal laundry facility for all the textiles and tapestries housed in Madrid’s royal palace. The laundry exhibits the monumental scale of the domestic by exposing the domestic scale of the royal. The codes and processes of cleaning organize sorting, washing, drying and repairs into viewable territories, and re-curate the royal treasures and the royal everyday. The Royal Laundry possessing three water storage towers, also doubles programmatically as a water treatment plant, alleviating the growing concern of water shortage currently present within mainland Spain.

Sited between neglected Moncloa-Aravaca and the EU protected area of Monte De El Pardo, the royal laundry acts as a new social, economic and cultural anchor connecting this 'etcetera' with Madrid.

Andrew CumineTutor(s)

Jeanne Sillett

2011

Grandstand View of Royal Laundry

Conceptual Model Depicting Madrid's Topographical Surface as a Skin

Topographical Samples Originating From Madrid's Historic Western Edge

Support Structure Models for Topographical Samples

Programme Development - Tapestries and Dirty Socks as Spatial Agents

Flow Diagram of Laundry Water System and Key Operations

Site Plan / Site Model

Ground Floor Plan / Long Section

Lower Floor Plans

Cross Section / External Model View of Line Drying Area

Roof Structure Prototype

Internal View of Main Laundry Area / External View of Water Storage Towers